Gates to Buddhist Practice

This collection of teachings presents the traditional wisdom of the Vajrayana path. It is a brilliant guide to the spiritual path ~ simple yet profound, intimate and immediate. H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche taught widely for many years in the West and addressed the questions of students grappling with the challenges, concerns, and skepticism encountered in genuine spiritual practice. These questions, as well as Rinpoche's incisive responses, are presented in conjunction with an indepth presentation of the philosophy and practice of Tibetan Buddhism. Rinpoche established many centers for the study and practice of Vajrayana Buddhism. His main centers are Chagdud Gonpa Rigdzin Ling in Junction City, California, and Chagdud Gonpa Khadro Ling in Três Coroas, Brazil.

This is a rare book: a brilliant guide to the spiritual path by a master of outstanding qualities who has taught in the West now for many years. Simple yet profound, intimate and immediate, Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche’s words speak to us all. They show how, by bringing the light of wisdom and compassion into every corner of our lives, we can come to understand the mind and transform its emotions, and so discover the boundless freedom of our true nature.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche In Gates to Buddhist Practice, His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche presents the traditional wisdom of the Vajrayana path. Since its original publication, Rinpoche continued to teach widely and address the questions of sincere students grappling with the many challenges, concerns, and even skepticism encountered in genuine spiritual practice. These questions, as well as Rinpoche’s incisive responses, form the basis of the material added to this revised edition. Rinpoche provides insight into formal meditation practice and demonstrates how spiritual truths can be of immediate help in our daily lives. Thus new readers will benefit from other students’ efforts to clarify their understanding with an authentic spiritual teacher. H. E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche (1930–2002) was a highly revered Tibetan meditation master, artist, and healer who taught extensively in the East and West. His other books are Life in Relation to Death and Lord of the Dance, his autobiography. His Bodhisattva Peace Training teachings can be found in Change of Heart, compiled and edited by Lama Shenpen Drolma.

Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche was born in eastern Tibet in 1930, son of Delog Dawa Drolma, one of Tibet’s most renowned female lamas. At age three, he was recognized as abbot of Chagdud Gonpa, a centuries-old monastery and one of the few that would survive destruction by the Chinese Communists. He received extensive training from many great lamas and belonged to the last generation of teachers to have inherited the vast wealth of Buddhist teachings while still living in Tibet. His stories of his childhood capture the last sunlit moments, the 1930s and ‘40s, when the full array of the Buddhist teachings, and particularly the Tibetan Vajrayana path, could be practiced freely in a rich culture that revered its spiritual adepts. In 1959, Rinpoche went into exile and, during the two decades that followed served the Tibetan community in India and Nepal as lama and physician. At the request of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, he established a refugee camp in Orissa, India, which the Indian government considered to be a model of economic self-sufficiency. He was widely known for his ability to heal, and he trained many people in the technique of p’howa, the transference of consciousness at the moment of death. In 1979, at the invitation of several American students, he came to the United States, first establishing his seat in Cottage Grove, Oregon, and later at Rigdzin Ling, in Junction City, California. He founded centers for the study and practice of Vajrayana Buddhism throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Europe, and Brazil. From 1996 until his passing in 2002, Chagdud Rinpoche resided at his South American seat called Khadro Ling, in Três Coroas, southern Brazil. In his twenty-three years in the West, Rinpoche taught thousands of people all over the world. Several became highly accomplished spiritual practitioners and teachers while many others integrated his guidance into daily life practice. One of his accomplishments, perhaps the greatest, was his ability—through teaching and example—to instill purer motivation and a deeper compassion in the hearts of those who were fortunate enough to hear and encounter this exemplary being. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche's memoir of his life in Tibet and the West, Lord of the Dance, is also available from Padma Publishing.